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Chicago Tourism - Travel to Chicago

        

Chicago is a city in Illinois, and the unofficial capital of the Midwest region of the United States of America. It's the third-largest city in the US, after New York and Los Angeles. Chicago is known as The Windy City - although people disagree about whether this refers to the severe winds that blow off the Lake Michigan or the hot air of Chicago's notoriously corrupt politicos. The nickname originated in an editorial in the New York Sun during the city's bid for the 1893 World's Fair, wherein the editor railed against the city's raucous boosterism: suggesting that no one pay attention to the "nonsensical claims of that windy city. Its people could not hold a world's fair even if they won it".

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Get into Chicago

Travel to Chicago By Plane

Chicago is served by two large airports -- O'Hare in the north and Midway on the south side. The CTA's blue line runs from O'Hare to downtown Chicago taking around 45 minutes. The orange line runs from Midway to the loop in around 30 minutes.

Travel to Chicago By car

I-55 will take you directly from St. Louis into downtown Chicago. I-90/94 comes in from Indiana to the east. I-90 comes in from Madison, WI to the west. I-94 comes in from Milwaukee, WI to the north. I-80 will get you to the city from Iowa.

Get around in Chicago

Navigating Chicago is easy. Block numbers are consistent across the whole city. State Street is 0 E/W downtown and Madison Street splits 0 N/S. Standard blocks are 1/8th of a mile long. Parking will be a pain.

Good weather? Rent a bike from the North Avenue Beachhouse and pedal your way around the city. Chicago has many bike lanes, including the scenic Lakefront Trail (trail map), which runs for 18 continuous miles along the beautiful downtown shoreline. Bicycles can also be rented from several bike shops in the city. Chicago has a fine bicycle culture. Chicago is also completely flat -- a boon for any bicycler!

Using Public Transit

There's two parts of the CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) -- the El (elevated train) and buses. (There's also Metra, a commuter rail system for getting to and from the suburbs.)

All the El lines basically go to and from downtown. The circle the trains tracks make downtown is what forms the "Loop" (which has become another name for downtown). If you are staying downtown, or are visiting downtown, the El is probably all you'll need. Note: the "subway" is used to refer to the Red and Blue lines downtown, where those lines go underground. People might be confused if you refer to the El as a subway.

There's an attendent at every El station. They can't provide change or deal with money, but they can help you figure out where you need to go, or guide you through using the machines. The attendents are usually very bored and are happy to have something to do, so don't hesitate to ask them questions.

The El runs fairly late, though different lines run to different times, and some lines don't run their full length late at night. The red and blue lines run 24 hours a day.

The fare for the El and buses is $1.75. But be sure to hang on to the card you purchase -- you can use it for transfers. The first time you re-enter the system within 2 hours it costs $0.25, and subsiquent transfers are free. The cards and transfers work for both the El and buses, but you can only get a card as El stations. Buses also accept cash, but don't provide change, and you have to specifically ask (and pay) for a transfer. But though buses won't give you cards, you can add money to your card on buses -- just put your card in (that has less than $1.75 on it) and then insert cash and the $1.75 will be deducted and you'll get the card back with your balance.

There are also visitor passes for unlimited travel, but these are fairly expensive -- you'll probably save money by using normal fare cards.

Buses run on all the major streets in Chicago, and seldom run less frequently than every 30 minutes. The "major" streets are every 400 (400, 800, 1200, etc) in the numbering system, or every 1/2 mile. So you can get nearly anywhere with one transfer. But the El feels friendlier to most people.

Downtown there is also a free trolley, used mostly by tourists. This is actually an uncomfortable bus made to look like a trolley. It's a quick way to get around downtown. They use specially-marked bus stops, but they'll usually let you off wherever you want.

If you have a larger group (three or four people) taxis become fairly affordable compared to the CTA. Taxis are easy to flag down on the street, even late at night (especially if you are in an area with bars or clubs).

See Chicago

Do Chicago

Listen

Eat - Travel to Chicago

Great restaurants are scattered across the city, from the long established, traditional Greektown to the street-glam, edgy East Ukrainian Village, from the exotic Indian-flavored Devon Avenue in West Rogers Park to the eclectic Clark Street in Andersonville, where you'll find great Swedish, American, Korean, Persian, and Italian restaurants, (to name a few) lined up in a row.

Drink

Sleep - Chicago Tourism

As a major U.S. convention hosting city, Chicago has plenty of places to stay, although most of them are in the mid or splurge ranges. The vast majority of hotels are either at the airport or downtown (loop or near north). If you want to explore the city aim for the latter. Budget oriented places are usually pretty far out, so when you're booking remember that Chicago is vast, especially compared to European and east coast cities.

Budget

Mid Range

Splurge

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